Not Without Laughter

<p>2020 Reprint of the 1930 Edition.  Hughes award-winning first novel about a black boy’s coming-of-age in a largely white Kansas town. When first published in 1930 <em>Not Without Laughter </em>established Langston Hughes as not only a brilliant poet and leading light of the Harlem Renaissance but also a gifted novelist. In telling the story of Sandy Rogers a young African American boy in small-town Kansas and of his family—his mother Annjee a housekeeper for a wealthy white family; his irresponsible father Jimboy who plays the guitar and travels the country in search of employment; his strong-willed grandmother Hager who clings to her faith; his Aunt Tempy who marries a rich man; and his Aunt Harriet who struggles to make it as a blues singer—Hughes gives the longings and lineaments of black life in the early twentieth century an important place in the history of racially divided America.</p>